With four new movies in wide release, the weekend’s No. 1 film is likely to be the $20-million Warner Bros. horror thriller “The Conjuring,” which is on track to sell as much as $36 million in tickets, the early receipts suggested.

The exorcism movie grossed more than $3 million from Thursday night screenings.

Summit Entertainment’s semi-retired spy sequel “Red 2,” made at a cost of $84 million, could generate sales of as much as $24 million in its weekend debut, probably higher than the Sony holdover “Grown Ups 2” and at least double the projected gross of Universal’s “R.I.P.D.”

“Red 2” should also surpass the $135-million “Turbo,” from DreamWorks Animation and distributor 20th Century Fox, which looks to gross $20 million or less in its first three days in theaters (the film opened Wednesday). “Turbo’s” desultory launch will probably be below the third weekend's returns for “Despicable Me 2.”

The best-case estimate for “R.I.P.D.” has it grossing a weak $12 million, even less than the second weekend of "Pacific Rim," which opened last weekend to $37.3 million, a poor debut given "Pacific Rim's" $190-million budget.

But other estimates say "R.I.P.D." may generate even less than $10 million in weekend sales, making the Reynolds-Jeff Bridges film one of the summer’s biggest disasters along with Disney’s “The Lone Ranger.”

Only a handful of movies qualify for the exclusive club of films that have taken in more than $1 billion in worldwide box office -- and only two have made more than $2 billion. By Charles Fleming | Sources: Los Angeles Times, Box Office Mojo

"The Conjuring" looks to cast a spell over audiences this weekend, with our own box-office reporter Amy Kaufman estimating the film with a $20-million budget may open to more than $30 million in ticket sales. It joins other recent return-on-investment horror titles from this year such as "Mama"...

Winning the box-office derby on its opening weekend was a foregone conclusion for “Mission: Impossible — Rogue Nation,” leaving only the question of just how formidable a draw the latest installment in the Tom Cruise-led thriller franchise would be.